A silver lining amidst COVID-19?

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly shown us what it means to live in unprecedented times. In the following opinion piece, Michelle Groenewald – a lecturer in economics at the North-West University (NWU) – shares her views on some encouraging measures that have taken place of late. She asks the question: can South Africans demand a better…

NWU hopes to stem CORONA’s surge

COVID-19. A denomination for a world epidemic that will live in infamy. In 1918 one-third of the world’s population became infected with a virus we now call the Spanish Flu. Millions died. More suffered. Endless story of those fateful years will forever be told.  

COVID-19 is the newest iteration of an age-old foe that was then -…

NWU engineers rising to the Covid-19 challenge

The world, and now more recently our nation, is faced with difficult times as the recent Covid-19 pandemic turns life as we know it upside down. A team at the Faculty of Engineering from the North-West University (NWU), in collaboration with other experts involved in this unsettling battle, is rising to the challenge to support our…

Postdoctoral fellow from Malaysia Joins Optentia

International postdoctoral fellows play an important role in spearheading postgraduate research activity at the North-West University (NWU). This type of internationalisation also supports the NWU’s drive to benefit society trough excellence in innovative learning and teaching and cutting edge research. 

The Optentia research focus area…

NWU’s Optentia boasts impressive list of extraordinary professors

When it comes to creating a hub of national and international knowledge, the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Optentia research focus area is leading the charge.

No fewer than four extraordinary professors have been appointed at the research focus area of late:

NWU economist says lockdown comes at the right time

“President Cyril Ramaphosa’s lockdown of South Africa to combat the Covid-19 virus comes at the right time,” says an economist of the NWU Business School.

Prof Raymond Parsons says the decision follows the precedent set by some other countries in successfully dealing with the virus.

He believes the announcement of a drastic…

The Cave: a digital safe haven for stressed social workers

Generally social work is considered a stressful occupation due to the emotional demands on practitioners. One group of social workers that is particularly at risk for negative outcomes are those employed within the child protection practice setting, tasked with the statutory duty to protect children.

This was one of the research findings of…

How SA could minimise heart disease deaths

Globally, heart disease remains the leading cause of death among middle-aged adults, accounting for 40% of all deaths. An alarming 80% of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries such as South Africa.

This is one of the findings from the multinational Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, in which the…

SADiLaR takes the lead in digitising establishing 11 national languages

Digitising South Africa’s 11 official languages could go a long way towards creating a truly multilingual society. Various projects are currently in progress at the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), located at the North-West University (NWU), to create digital resources for the country’s official languages.

Worse than expected GDP data highlights SA’s economic damage

“The worse than expected GDP data for the fourth quarter of 2019 confirms that not only did the South African economy experience a ‘technical recession’ in the second half of 2019, but that growth in 2019 as a whole was also only 0,2%.”

This is according to Prof Raymond Parsons, a well-known economist and academic from the North-…